Farewell, silent #Philae
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/07/26/farewell-silent-philae
Tomorrow, 27 July 2016 at 09:00 UTC / 11:00 CEST, the Electrical Support System Processor Unit (ESS) on #Rosetta will be switched off. The ESS is the interface used for communications between #rosetta and the #lander, #philae, which has remained silent since 9 July 2015. Switching off the ESS is part of the preparations for Rosetta’s end of mission. By the end of July 2016, the spacecraft will be some 520 million km from the Sun, and will start facing a significant loss of power – about 4W per day. In order to continue scientific #Operations over the next two months and to maximise their return, it became necessary to start reducing the power consumed by the non-essential payload components on board. No signal has been received by Rosetta from Philae since last July and earlier this year (...)
